Former Fighting Sioux hockey player and current Maple Leaf Jason Blake apparently knew the 13-year-old hockey player Evan Frustaglio that died from H1N1 last week. This young kid was healthy and yet this virus took his life, it breaks your heart. I think this really puts things in perspective. I just hope that we can beat back this damn virus.

The death of 13-year-old Evan Frustaglio from the H1N1 flu virus hit hard for one Toronto Maple Leafs player.

Two years ago, Leafs forward Jason Blake was new to the team and the city and struggling to deal with the news he had chronic myelogenous leukemia, a rare but treatable form of cancer. However, the little boy next door who loved hockey always made him smile.

“‘I can’t imagine what they are going through,” Blake said Wednesday morning of his former Etobicoke neighbors, the Frustaglio family, two days after Evan died from the flu. “They are a great family with great kids. Evan was a hell of a hockey player.

“It’s tough. My prayers and thoughts go with them.”

Blake, his wife Sara and their three children lived in the house next door to the Frustaglios for the 2007-08 season, his first in Toronto after signing a five-year $20-million (U.S.) contract with the NHL team. It was a difficult year for Blake, as his illness weighed heavily on his play. While the disease was treatable with regular medication, Blake went from 40 goals the season before with the New York Islanders to 15 with the Leafs.

Things were a little better at home, though, as Paul and Ann-Marie Frustaglio welcomed the Blake family to the neighbourhood.

“We became good friends with them,” Blake recalled as the Leafs got ready to play the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. “They showed us the ropes when we got to town. They were our next-door neighbours, their kids came over and played driveway hockey. We had dinners together.
[Globe and Mail]